The approaching start of the academic year with H1N1 at the forefront; the failure of Farouk Hosni to become UNESCO secretary-general With the spread of swine flu, there is a state of fear and concern about the safety of students who are readying to start school on 3 October. Some parents are considering keeping their children at home to protect them from the risk of the virus at schools. The independent daily Nahdet Masr asked whether we should postpone the start of the academic year. The experts' responses to the newspaper shed light on many issues, mainly the poor state of some schools and universities and the loss of confidence in officials statements regarding swine flu. Hisham Attiya wrote that it was an adventure to leave more than 17 million students subject to a swine flu epidemic without immunising them. He expressed his fear that it would turn into a national catastrophe if the students catch the disease and then spread it everywhere in Egypt. Attiya's fear -- which millions of other parents share -- is exacerbated by a WHO report which confirmed that schools are the site in which deadly viruses gather to kill any community. Attiya added that we are in a state of confusion due to the contradictory statements of the ministers of health and education. The first warned of the danger of the virus while the latter insisted on starting the school year without immunising students. "There is no place for contradictory decisions in facing such a dangerous virus. We need a clear decision: either give the 17 million students the jab or postpone schools," Attiya wrote in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom. Magdi Hegazi wrote in the same newspaper about how every pilgrim will have to sign a form that he takes the vaccine at his own personal responsibility. That statement, as Hegazi said, raised several worrying questions: where are the laboratories of the Ministry of Health and its bodies that are teeming with elite scientists and researchers? Is it not reasonable to test samples of the vaccine before providing it to citizens? Does the role of the ministry end as soon as it brings the vaccine into Egypt? The other basic question Hegazi raises is who is responsible for the health of the Egyptian citizen? "Their is a national responsibility, borne by the Ministry of Health with all its bodies. The minister's statement does not exempt the ministry from its responsibility for any harm that could happen to any citizen who takes the vaccine imported by the ministry." Farouk Hosni's failure to get the position of UNESCO secretary-general was also in the limelight this week. Writers asked why it happened, the lessons to be learnt and how to avoid a similar failure in the future. Abdallah Abdel-Salam called for a calm review of the reasons behind our failure in achieving a victory that we thought was in our favour weeks ago. He wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram that in order to avoid a repetition of what happened in UNESCO, we should refrain from using terms like conspiracy, treason, racism, terrorism or conflict of civilisations. The most dangerous thing in using terms like conspiracy is dissolving the difference between the person and the nation: Farouk Hosni is not Egypt but he is Egypt's candidate. Thus, all the criticism against him -- many of which is unfair -- is not necessarily against Egypt, the Arabs or Muslims. The writer also noted that Hosni made himself an easy target by his unfortunate statement about burning Jewish books. In looking for the reasons behind Hosni's failure, we should avoid twisting the facts, like claiming that the south is banned from the job of UNESCO secretary-general. The African Muslim Mokhtar Ambo held the job for 13 years. Besides, saying that Europe preferred Bulgaria to Egypt is not true, as anyone who is acquainted with European affairs will notice a sharp -- and possibly racist attack -- by European Union officials against Bulgaria which was accused of corruption and organised crime. What will benefit Egypt at present is admitting our responsibility for the failure either because of over- confidence in dealing with the issue, or because of the negligence of our foreign policy of important areas like Africa and Latin America and then suddenly rushing to these areas when it suited us. However, the greatest prize we could win from a review is revealing the costs of the campaign of the Egyptian candidate and who bore them: the state or businessmen. Amr El-Zont wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom that the repercussions of the UNESCO battle, which some of us are trying to put in the context of a cultural conflict, prove that such inactive thinking is still being used to compensate for our failure to establish a political system respected by the world and in which free creative culture can grow and thrive. Many of us have adopted the theory of cultural conflict. The political system adopted the theory during the second half of the 20th century and applied it in politics and economy, and spread it to public culture through the media and educational system until it became dominant in the Egyptian conscience. Such a theory led to the disappearance of free culture and creative intellectual thinking. As a result, isolationism prevailed and Taha Hussein's dream, which visualises culture advancement as the cornerstone for political and social pluralism, freedom and the building of the modern Egyptian identity, has been lost. "The UNESCO battle" in which the South supported our minister, while the countries of the industrialised modern world opposed him, does not necessarily indicate that the latter is in a cultural conflict with us. Instead, it indicates our failure to achieve Taha Hussein's dream. We called for political independence and we got it, but we failed to positively participate in the establishment of the modern civilisation which Taha Hussein was certain was the only way to gain the respect of the world," El-Zont wrote. "Hosni's personal record is not bad and that is what enabled him to compete for the position on an equal footing with his rivals. However, he worked as a minister in a political and intellectual climate that is isolated and bankrupt. That is what caused his defeat in the end," the writer added. For example, the Alexandria library was built during his term but it remained a great achievement only in form rather than content as it does not contain more than one tenth the number of books the architects designed it for. Also during his term in office, confiscating books and ideas prevailed. Maybe the modern world has despaired of the possibility that our cultural status would improve and accepted that as a given. But that does not mean that it respects this status or supports our political system outside the minimum framework necessary to guarantee its interests, El-Zont explained. By Doaa El-Bey
